Remilekun Abdulkhalid Safaru, known to most of us as Reminisce is not only one of the most prolific rappers in Nigeria at the moment, he is also a deep storyteller when he gets in his feelings. His magnum opus, El Hadj, has been received with critical acclaim.
On track 8 of the album, Remilekun took us on a soulful and emotional historical odyssey. A journey of juvenile expression, pain, and triumph. It was Reminisce in a form we have never really seen him before. One wonders how many times a tear rolled down his cheeks as he stood in the booth recording the lines of this song.
“I Remember” a rap song, done mostly in Yoruba, is a story of determination, against all odds, to succeed. It emphasizes the difficult to break bond between child and parents and reminds us of the pain that comes with the loss of parents, something we all have to contend with at one time or the order. It is a throw back those of us who grew up in the 80s and 90s of what life was then on TV, the cartoons, the comics, the games, what the kids of today are missing. It reminds us of everything.
***I Remember
Reminisce –
Word
I remember
I remember when I was young
Ti ma n woshe Michael Jackson
Mo ma n jiwe buruku ka, Dauda pelu Nackson
Mo ma n wo LTV gan, mo like music pelu acting
Mo ma wo Victor and Hugo, Voltron, Danger Mouse, Super Ted
Television these days is super dead
Got older, ko Common Entrance ati G2
Game and watch o jekin focus lori ishe mi ni school
Wan ran mi lo boarding school, Compro Aiyetoro
Kaye wa toro!, kaye wa toro!
JS 1, JS 2, mo wo JS 3
Break JSS wo SS, my Mama passed on
Damn! ko tete ye mi, what do you mean she passed on?
Don’t fuck with me man, e je tete pe pastor
To ma ressurect wan, kin to lo di actor
Kin to ma destroy everything pelu werey factor
Couple weeks after, reality ti set in
I am in this cold world alone and that is all I am getting
Ibo ni mo ma gbe bayi? Daddy mi wa lo’Ogun state
Product of a broken home, mind me wa ni dark state
Move lo sodo Grandma, but the world don’t love me
Mummy awon aburo yin fuck up gan, men its all gone
Then I shifted my attention to my old father
I ain’t know the man loved me so much until after
Ta wan get close, shared with me all he knows
Ensure pe mo kawe, even ti mo ba fe shey mojo
‘Am like “ko so fo”, ma ka Poly
Tin ba shetan, igba melo noman fin blow?
But calculation mi wrong, learnt harder with each song
Rap game yi ya werey gan, 7 years mo fi blow
Damn, I aint know shit was this tough
O blow pelu Kaako, wan den noro bi paako
Niggas doubted my ability, so I switched up my rap flow
Follow up mi too much, wole kanle tan ni
Money started getting deep bi konga tan fi n panmi
2nd albun mi “Alaga Ibile” tun wa wole
Platinum status verified lateko doluyole
Hit my nigga Davido up, jo jeka sekan
Lowo, lowo, lowo ri Daddy mi o
That song was for my father, Daddy celebrate 80th
Smile on his face he was like “boy, man I am proud of yo”
18 months after, “Baba Hafusa” jabo
Billboard chat topping album, kon shey lasan
4 months after, damn my Daddy passed away
Shii, my Daddy passed away…..
The purpose of this piece is to break open the pieces that make up this song, delivered as one verse in 3 minutes and 22 seconds, with 47 lines of profound words, and try to explain what each line means.
***I Remember***
Reminisce –
Word
I remember
This is how he remembers his story….
I remember when I was young
Ti ma n woshe Michael Jackson
Mo ma n jiwe buruku ka, Dauda pelu Nackson
Mo ma n wo LTV gan, mo like music pelu acting
Mo ma wo Victor and Hugo, Voltron, Danger Mouse, Super Ted
Television these days is super dead
Remilekun starts from the beginning, how while as young lad Michael Jackson was his idol. He used to learn dance-steps from him. How he used to hide away to read “Dauda” and “Nackson”, characters whose philandering escapades were the theme of adult comics of same name that were in publication back then. Remi tells us how he loved to watch LTV (Lagos Television channel 8) where he never misses episodes of the popular cartoons Victor and Hugo, Voltron, Danger Mouse, and Super Ted. He feels television these days has lost its appeal.
Remi spent a lot of time on TV and in between adult comics growing up
Got older, ko Common Entrance ati G2
Game and watch o jekin focus lori ishe mi ni school
Wan ran mi lo boarding school, Compro Aiyetoro
Kaye wa toro!, kaye wa toro!
JS 1, JS 2, mo wo JS 3
Then came the time to get into secondary school and Alaga Ibile wrote all those exams they we all had to right to proceed to junior secondary. He got introduced to video games (we called them game and watch then), most likely the earliest iterations of Tetris. Anyways, secondary school saw him attending Comprehensive High School, Aiyetoro, Ogun State, popularly called “Compro”. Former President Olusegiun Obasanjo and billionaire Mike Adenuga of Globacom are notable alumni of this school. When they sing their school anthem they chant “Kaye wa toro!, Kaye wa toro!”. He made it all the way to JSS 3.
Reminisce probably almost cut off his finger with pliers too in electronics lab in Compro
Break JSS wo SS, my Mama passed on
Damn! ko tete ye mi, what do you mean she passed on?
Don’t fuck with me man, e je tete pe pastor
To ma ressurect wan, kin to lo di actor
Kin to ma destroy everything pelu werey factor
Couple weeks after, reality ti set in
I am in this cold world alone and that is all I am getting
Ibo ni mo ma gbe bayi? Daddy mi wa lo’Ogun state
Product of a broken home, mind me wa ni dark state
Move lo sodo Grandma, but the world don’t love me
Mummy awon aburo yin fuck up gan, men its all gone
Then tragedy struck young Remilekun. His mother, who obviously was one his earliest influences and backbone passed on. It was hard for him to believe and accept. He demanded that a pastor be called in to pray her back to life, else he goes berserk. Well, he eventually had to accept the reality of his predicament. He felt alone. Which is understandable. Now he finds himself in a new predicament. His parents were separated and his Dad lived in Ogun State. Where will he live now that Mummy is gone? So he moved in with Grandmother. But nothing can compare with parental care. He complains posthumously to his mum that her siblings did not take good care of him.
Mothers are gods.
Then I shifted my attention to my old father
I ain’t know the man loved me so much until after
Ta wan get close, shared with me all he knows
Ensure pe mo kawe, even ti mo ba fe shey mojo
‘Am like “ko so fo”, ma ka Poly
Tin ba shetan, igba melo noman fin blow?
So he bit the bullet and moved to go live with his father. He had presumptions about his Dad, like how could he have left his mother if he loved him? But with time, he realized his father loved him more than he thought. He bonded with him, and learned a lot from him about what it means to be a man. His Dad made sure Remi got higher education, because at that time, the artist in him had started toying with abandoning education. Even if he was going to be a porn actor, an education would come in handy.So in deference to his Father, Remi decided to attend a Polytechnic. he believed that when he is done, it won’t take him so much time before he became a big star.
A father’s love is special
But calculation mi wrong, learnt harder with each song
Rap game yi ya werey gan, 7 years mo fi blow
Damn, I aint know shit was this tough
O blow pelu Kaako, wan den noro bi paako
Niggas doubted my ability, so I switched up my rap flow
But how mistaken was he!! The music industry was not that lenient. The rap game is brutal. It took him 7 years to get his first hit. He did not know it was going to be this tough. He finally got his first hit “Kako Bii Chicken”. After this, industry players were not sure he isn’t a one hit wonder. So he switched things up and changed up his style.
He blew and moved on to greater things
Follow up mi too much, wole kanle tan ni
Money started getting deep bi konga tan fi n panmi
2nd albun mi “Alaga Ibile” tun wa wole
Platinum status verified lateko doluyole
Hit my nigga Davido up, jo jeka sekan
Lowo, lowo, lowo ri Daddy mi o
That song was for my father, Daddy celebrate 80th
Smile on his face he was like “boy, man I am proud of yo”
His switched up style caught the industry by surprise. He started getting gigs and his bank account started turning blue. His 2nd album “Alaga Ibile” was released and attained platinum status, and got recognition all across the South West, from Lagos all the way to Ibadan. He called up his boy Davido and asked that they do a collabo about them getting more paid than their fathers. That birthed the smash hit “Daddy Mii”. Reminisce says it was dedicated to his father on his 80th birthday. His father was so pleased and told him how proud of him he is.
The album art was gritty!
18 months after, “Baba Hafusa” jabo
Billboard chat topping album, kon shey lasan
4 months after, damn my Daddy passed away
Shii, my Daddy passed away…..
18 months after his Dad’s 80th birthday, he released his 3rd album “Baba Hafusa”. It made it all the way to number 12 on the Billboard world music album chart. 4 months after, his Father passed on, leaving him an orphan.
Damn.
***Lyrics transcribed by Monk